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Category: Politics

If you are social media or watch any main stream media then you have heard all about how the rich got richer…..especially after Trump’s tax cuts…..

May I see a show of hands…..do you know just how did the rich get richer?

Okay would you like to know? Of course you would…it may be one of those issues that helps you who to vote for in 2020….

I could bore the crap out of you with all this monetary policy claptrap or I could turn you on to the cartoons below that make this all so much simpler…….

Something massive and important has happened in the United States over the past 50 years: Economic wealth has become increasingly concentrated among a small group of ultra-wealthy Americans.

You can read lengthy books on this subject, like economist Thomas Piketty’s recent best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century(the book runs 696 pages and weighs in at 2.5 pounds). You can see references to this in the campaigns of major political candidates this cycle, who talk repeatedly about how something has gone very wrong in America.

Donald Trump’s motto is to make America great again, while Bernie Sanders’s campaign focused on reducing income inequality. And there’s a reason this message is resonating with voters:

The global rise was driven partially by a $9.6 billion hike in U.S. arms expenditure – the United States is the world’s largest defense spender by a wide margin. Though it is yet unclear what the growing arms investments will mean for international relations, major defense contractors around the world stand to benefit.

Total arms sales among the world’s 100 largest defense contractors topped $398 billion in 2017 after climbing for the third consecutive year. Notably, Russia, one of the countries with the fastest growing militaries over the last decade, became the second largest arms-producing country, overtaking the United Kingdom for the first time since 2002. The United States’ position as the top arms-producing nation in the world remains unchanged, and for now unchallenged.

The United States is home to five of the world’s 10 largest defense contractors, and American companies account for 57 percent of total arms sales by the world’s 100 largest defense contractors, based on SIPRI data

The push is on to protect Israel at all costs…..look at the stories being aired on the MSM….plus the moronic babble of the GOP……they are weaponizing “anti-semitism”…..hey MSM!……time to stop generating the news a start reporting the news…..

What’s in a word? Plenty, if those words are “racism” or “antisemitism.” Just ask Virginia Governor Ralph Northam or freshman Congresswoman Ilham Omar. Last week both found themselves engulfed in political firestorms. All because of those two barbed words.

Governor Northam faced charges of racism when someone discovered a racist photo on his medical school yearbook page That an 80’s yearbook photo could push a governor’s political career to the brink raises questions about how the word “racism” is being defined and how it is being weaponized in political debates.

I know that some of my readers think that I am a bit hard on the president….Trump in this case……but if they have been a reader for long they will know that I do not give any president a pass….I have been hard on most presidents both Dem and Repub…..

Most of America is aware of the legal antics around this president…..whether you agree with him or not…..

I was reading, as I am always doing, about the chances that Trump will resign before the 2020 election…..

As Donald Trump gave his 2019 “State of the (Dis)Union” speech, an unasked question haunted the event – will he be forced to resign before the 2020 election? Much media attention is focused on “Russia Gate” and the Mueller investigation as well as the dozen or so investigations getting underway by the new Democrat-controlled Congress. However, Trump’s real threat may come from the investigations of his – and his family’s – business practices being separately undertaken by the governments of New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Maryland.

Trump’s leading biographer, David Cay Johnston, pulls no punches in his assessment of Trump’s questionable business practices. “He comes from a family of criminals,” Johnston explains. “His grandfather made his fortune running whorehouses in Seattle and in the Yukon Territory. His father, Fred, had a business partner named Willie Tomasello, who was an associate of the Gambino crime family. Trump’s father was also investigated by the U.S. Senate for ripping off the government for what would be the equivalent of $36 million in today’s money.” Following the family line, Johnston notes, “Donald got his showmanship from his dad, as well as his comfort with organized criminals.”

Then there are those that think he will try to cut a deal on his legal problems before the 2020 election…..

President Donald Trump will not be removed from office via an impeachment conviction, but he will make a deal to exit his presidency “before the end of 2019,” says a former advisor to President George W. Bush. Alan J. Steinberg in an NJ.com op-ed says Trump will craft a deal to protect himself, his children, and the Trump Organization.

Trump will “use his presidency as a bargaining chip with federal and state authorities in 2019, agreeing to leave office in exchange for the relevant authorities not pursuing criminal charges against him, his children or the Trump Organization.”

Steinberg does predict Trump will be impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, but says it is “highly unlikely” there will be enough votes in the Republican-majority Senate to convict and remove him from office.

This got me to thinking……and got me to asking….will this president ever leave office even if he loses the election?

Then the question is….will he ever voluntarily leave office even if he loses in 2020?

This past weekend I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is a lawyer. Let’s call him Pete. Pete is as opposed to the reign of Donald Trump as any other sentient American, but rolled his eyes at the non-stop discussion of constitutional crisis that has replaced sports, the weather, and the Kardashians as Conversational Topic Number 1 among the chattering classes, of which he and I are both card-carrying members.

Pete’s argument is simply this:

Trump is not going to be impeached, indicted, or thrown out of office under the 25th Amendment. Barring an unforeseen turn of events — like the revenge of a lifetime of Big Macs and Diet Cokes — the only way we get rid of him is by voting him out in 2020.

Would Trump willingly start a “civil war” to keep his place in the White House?

When Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen testified to Congress last week, as The Inquisitr reported, he finished his opening statement with a dire warning about Trump, a man who he has known for more than a decade. Cohen warned that if Trump were to lose the 2020 presidential election, he may simply refuse to leave office, at least not without a fight.

“I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. And this is why I agreed to appear before you today,” Cohen told the members of the House Oversight Committee, as CNBC reported.

The beginning scene of one of the James Bond early movies was when Bond kills a guy dressed like a woman and then made his escape in a jet pack……or those days when the jet packs were used in the openings of football games…..on and on…..

What happened to that idea?

It never went away….as a matter of fact a new generation of these machines are being tested as I type……

Wearable flight systems are apparently progressing and Special Operation Forces (SOF) may “soon” be equipped with such platforms, according to a report by Jane’s.

Reportedly, USSOCOM and French COS, both SOF components are considering jetpack technology.

“JetPack Aviation’s JB11 JetPack is being developed under a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) signed in 2016 with US Special Operations Command’s (USSOCOM’s) Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC).”

While French DGA is studying Zapata’s Flyboard Air technology as a concept but is not yet considering such systems for operational use.

It isn’t your usual bill, the For The People Act introduced Friday by House Democrats. Also known as HR 1, symbolically their first legislation, it is a 571-page compendium of existing problems and proposed solutions in four political hot zones: voting, political money, redistricting and ethics.

A pledge to pass the bill was a common theme among Democratic House candidates last year.

Short Titles as Introduced

For the People Act of 2019

Short Titles as Introduced for portions of this bill

Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act

Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2019

CLEAR Act

Conflicts from Political Fundraising Act of 2019

Connecting Lobbyists and Electeds for Accountability and Reform Act

DISCLOSE Act of 2019

Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2019

Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act of 2019

Democracy Restoration Act of 2019

Election Security Act

Empower Act of 2019

Ethics in Public Service Act

Executive Branch Comprehensive Ethics Enforcement Act of 2019

Executive Branch Conflict of Interest Act

Government By the People Act of 2019

Help America Run Act

Honest Ads Act

Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act of 2019

Presidential Inaugural Committee Oversight Act

Prevent Election Hacking Act of 2019

Redistricting Reform Act of 2019

Restoring Integrity to America’s Elections Act

Save Voters Act

Stand By Every Ad Act

Stop Automatically Voiding Eligible Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States Act

The vote has been taken…..and by their voting on the issue seems that the GOP is with Trump and anti-democratic……

Not a single House Republican voted for sweeping Democratic legislation that would strengthen voting rights and reduce the influence of corporate money on the political process.

The “For the People Act” (H.R. 1) passed on Friday by 234-193 party-line vote. All 193 no votes were by Republicans. Four Republicans did not vote.

“Protecting our democracy shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but the Republican Party has decided it is unwilling to even consider reform despite virtually all Americans agreeing that our system is broken,” Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement.

“Today’s vote on H.R. 1 is a monumental step forward for our country that will hopefully lead to the people retaking control of our government from special interests, lobbyists, and billionaire donors,” Pearl added. “It’s also a shameful reminder that Republicans are pursuing political power for the few over the fundamental values that this country was founded on.”

When the news broke that the Dems would take back the House I wrote then that with that bit of news we would see a return of the GOP of caring about the national debt and the deficit…….and viola!……I am hearing the rumblings of such a switch.

May I see a show of hands if any of this makes any sense to you?

First, the debt and the deficit are two different problems…..this video can help understand the economics…….

The news has broken that the national debt for the US is $22 trillion…yep that is Trillion with a “T”…….most of us cannot wrap our heads around that many zeros….it is difficult to understand and as usual I want to help you understand…..

Hopefully those two short videos helped you understand the economics at work here….

Congress does not care about the deficit or the debt (at least for now but that can change over night)…..

Congress has stared into the abyss of debt, and the abyss has stared back. The national debt just topped $22 trillion for the first time ever, yet barely a peep was heard in the halls of the Capitol. The debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled in less than 20 years, rising from 33 percent in 2000 to 78 percent today. Within 10 years, it will reach 93 percent, the highest level since just after World War II.

While currently the federal budget deficit is around $900 billion, beginning in 2022, it will exceed $1 trillion per year, every year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over the next decade, deficits are projected to fluctuate between 4.1 percent and 4.7 percent of GDP, well above the average over the past 50 years.

Hopefully this will help when the yelling and the chest thumping begins again…..the GOP needs something they can champion to turn the conversation away from their cowardice in confronting the corruption of the Trump administration.